I recognize the patronizing voice in
American reporting about countries struggling to find their way out of
chaos or recently overturned dictatorships. It rings of the arrogance that too often
accompanied our foreign aid, when it wasn’t politically incorrect to
refer to used cans of cooking oil as “appropriate technology” for Third
World women fetching water.
Article Highlights Cost-Effective Charities
1 Comment · Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Years
ago, after speaking at a local Catholic high school on the students’
duty to give intelligently when they donate to charity, a student
grabbed my arm en route to lunch of grilled cheese s
by Kevin Osborne
02.02.2012
Tebow, Islam and Bad Columnists
A recent plodding column by The Enquirer’s Krista Ramsey asked the red herring question in its headline, “So what if Tebow believes his audience is God?” Tebow, of course, refers to Tim Tebow, the quarterback for the Denver Broncos who has a tendency to dramatically kneel down on the gridiron, close his eyes and pray before games.Tebow’s showy, ultra-demonstrative displays have drawn some criticism. Although the player says he does it to honor God and get nonbelievers curious about his faith, many people counter the display is more about drawing attention to Tebow than to any divine entity or creed.
by Danny Cross
10.04.2011
Posted In: News, Poverty, Bailout, Media Criticism, Government, Social Justice at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Sawyer Point
Protest over corporate money in politics will take place in Cincinnati Saturday
The Occupy Wall Street movement plans to occupy Sawyer Point this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., one of several protests planned in other cities since the protest over corporate money in politics began more than three weeks ago in New York. (UPDATE: The protest has been moved to Lytle Park due to an already scheduled event at Sawyer Point.)The Cincinnati Enquirer did its usual muckraking on the subject, determining that the movement's “goals are vague” and then linking to a story quoting a member of the movement describing its goals quite succinctly:
Criminalizing Photography Is Worrisome
0 Comments · Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Until
the other day, I thought Cincinnati police officers were too bright
to confiscate cameras in a public place at a public meeting to which
the public was invited.
Hell,
the owners of the cameras weren’t disrupting the meeting or
photographing coppers using excessive force.
But
I was wrong. One of Cincinnati’s finest took two voters’ cameras
on orders from U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Westwood) or people working
for Chabot. It was a town meeting and Chabot was the speaker.
Norwegian Media Remain Calm Amid Killings
0 Comments · Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Did you notice how little supposition infected reporting from Norway after the downtown bomb explosion and island massacre? There was no rush to blame Arabs or Muslims nor pogroms against immigrants. There were questions but little blame-casting about police response times to the island.
The man responsible for the bomb and the murders was Norway’s version of Timothy McVeigh, not some dark-skinned foreigner or mixed-race child of an immigrant and Norwegian.
Helping Judges and Jurors Avoid Mistrials
0 Comments · Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Roger Clemens’ mistrial last week recalled a similarly weird situation caused by my Enquirer story landing atop Page 1 of fellow Gannett paper, USA Today. It, too, presented jurors with evidence the judge had barred from court. And as in the Clemens trial, the question was whether that created a potential mistrial.
OSU Fans Need to Get a Life
0 Comments · Thursday, June 9, 2011
I don’t know or care whether my university has winning teams. I have a life, something that Ohio State University fans need to get. Too many lack a sense of reality over the resignation of football coach Jim Tressel. Among the remnant who read, many are bombarding student journalists at OSU’s Daily Lantern with abuse and death threats.
Media Fail on Water Safety Coverage
0 Comments · Thursday, May 26, 2011
We’re headed into Memorial Day weekend and I hope The Enquirer resists any inclination to repeat the pratfall when the newspaper tried to give holiday water safety advice. It was a beaut: How to use the Heimlich Maneuver to resuscitate a standing victim pulled from the water. Think about it. Your “patient” is standing. How close to drowning is that?
Media coverage of Osama bin Laden's killing raises questions
0 Comments · Wednesday, May 11, 2011
We first saw a photo from the White House situation room with everyone looking intently at something we couldn’t see. About the same time, White House spokesmen said a live TV feed was coming from minicams atop the SEALs’ helmets. Were the president and others watching bin Laden being shot? Was Hillary’s hand-to-face gesture a response to a killing? If yes, how did we got such a phony story about his armed resistance? They would have known better.
